Agriculture committee  I think we have to look into the mechanics of that to be able to give you a detailed answer, but certainly what we want to see is humanitarian aid right now, but we also, at Oxfam, recognize that ideally we're in a world where there are more structural solutions, where we don't r

Agriculture committee  Sure. Maybe I can take this one. Just to give you an idea of what kinds of things we can be doing to respond to food crises, we're providing cash and vouchers to communities that don't have enough to eat. They can use this to purchase essential food items and meet their basic nu

Agriculture committee  Certainly, Canada has a role to play in that effort. I want to commend the Canadian government on its efforts to date. I think helping to bring people here is a good thing, because it gives them an opportunity to find work and earn an income until the situation in Ukraine is res

Agriculture committee  Displacement certainly plays a major role. When people have to leave their homes, their jobs, their fields, their crops and so forth, it has consequences. In addition, those families tend to have lower incomes, so they can't pay today's prices for food. We need to find ways to m

Agriculture committee  Thanks for that question. In Ukraine, one of the things that we're seeing, not only with the internally displaced people but also with the people who are being forced to cross the border, is that women and children make up about 90% of those fleeing because the men are staying b

Agriculture committee  Humanitarian response specifically in the protection sector protects vulnerable people like women who are forced to flee and makes sure we keep them safe.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for your question. I think the pure scale of need shows that what is needed most of all right now is increased humanitarian response. In terms of how that response is happening, Canada is already very good at funding organizations and responses that focus on gender-sen

Foreign Affairs committee  It sounds like it may be, but I don't know the entire situation. For sure, we're watching the types of vaccines that Canada is donating. I know that so far there's been more AstraZeneca. That is causing some challenges. A lot of countries are having difficulty placing them, beca

Foreign Affairs committee  It's a bit complicated also, because Canada's 200-million commitment is a commitment to donate the equivalent of 200 million doses, so that includes actual doses, but it also includes money to buy doses through COVAX. In terms of its actual surplus doses, right now it's donated f

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it's starting to speed up through COVAX. December-January was a turning point. Until then, there was scarcity in the supply globally. COVAX couldn't move, because there were no vaccines for it to buy. Now the landscape is changing. I expect the money that goes to COVAX

Foreign Affairs committee  As I mentioned in my answer to the previous question, I'm not familiar with the details of this case, so I can't comment.

Foreign Affairs committee  Clearly, with this pandemic and all the other crises that the world is facing—climate, the economic repercussions of the pandemic, conflict, global displacement—we need the ODA to go up to be able to support the world with the long-term fallout of this pandemic. I would strongly

Foreign Affairs committee  I apologize. I can't comment on that specific situation. I don't know the details. My hope is that Canada can.... Obviously, I want to see Canada be able to donate as many vaccines that are useful to the developing world as possible, but I don't know the ins and outs and politic

Foreign Affairs committee  You're right, Heather, about the pharmaceutical monopolies. The big four, if you will, have basically had exclusive patents on these vaccines that the entire world wants. That has basically enabled them to play God and decide what price they're going to sell the vaccines at and w

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. It's quite shocking. I think lives should be prioritized over corporate profits, when they clearly have more than enough already.